Worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities from August 1968 until Dec.11, 2008, the day the fraud mastermind was arrested and the decades-long financial scam collapsed.

From the 1980s on, Bonventre served as the Manhattan-based firm's director of operations, responsible for maintaining books and records, including the general ledger and stock record from Madoff's legitimate broker-dealer business.

But prosecution evidence showed he also profited from fabricated, backdated trades, hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses paid via a company-paid credit card and other perks. He bought a New Jersey oceanfront home just before the implosion. Prosecution testimony alleged he closed his investment account in 2006 over suspicions about the Madoff firm's implausibly consistent gains. Testifying in his own defense at trial, Bonventre denied that charge and all other allegations.

An executive assistant who worked for Madoff from 1968 until the firm collapsed, Bongiorno essentially was a portfolio manager who oversaw hundreds of investment advisory accounts for Madoff's longest-standing customers.

The accounts had a purported cumulative total of about $8.5 billion when Madoff confessed.

Prosecution evidence showed that she and her husband profited from phony, backdated trades, including one in which she purportedly sold Lehman Bros. shares shortly before the investment bank's 2008 bankruptcy.

Her gains and salary enabled Bongiorno to buy upscale homes in New York and Florida and a luxury Bentley auto.

Testifying in her own defense, Bongiorno said she never know about the scam and simply followed Madoff's orders.